Anybody who read Ted Kerasote's surprise national bestseller, "Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog," knows how much the Wyoming writer and outdoorsman loves dogs.

His new book, "Pukka's Promise: The Quest for Longer-Lived Dogs" is a direct outgrowth of that love. When Merle, the stray he brought home from the Utah desert, died at 14 -- a relatively ripe old age for a large dog -- Kerasote was heartbroken. He began to wonder: Why don't the dogs we love live longer?

"Why has nature decreed that our friendly dogs are already ancient in their teens, while giving the unhuggable tortoise more than a century of life and some whales two hundred years to swim through the polar seas?" he writes.

After Merle's death from cancer, Kerasote grieved awhile before searching in earnest for his next canine companion. That turned out to be Pukka (pronounced PUCK-ah, which means "first class" in Hindi). This time, Kerasote wanted to do everything he could to give his best friend the best shot at longevity. Kerasote, known in his early career for lyrical and heartfelt books about ethical hunting, set himself on a quest. "Pukka's Promise" is the result, and it's entertaining, illuminating and, at times, exasperating.

He racked up many miles, including voyages to Europe, in his search for answers about modern canine mortality.

He doesn't dole out simple answers to what turns out to be a fairly complex question, though some of the answers he finds are rather obvious. Consider first that wolves, the wild ancestor for every breed, from Chihuahuas to mastiffs, are relatively short-lived creatures, loping off this mortal coil at an average age of about 8.

He also concludes that while corn-based commercial dog food is far from a natural canine diet, the real trick to keeping your dog healthy is not so much what, but how much. Overfeeding will shave years off her life.

And, unsurprisingly, he notes that human intervention in the form of breeding for appearance or other characteristics contributes to shorter lives. Kerasote provides a handful of distressing photo comparisons showing what modern breeding has done to breeds like the German shepherd and pug. Thankfully -- though it has been controversial among many kennel clubs and breeders -- he reports a trend of putting the health of some show animals over their bizarre appearances. (Ironically, the author himself preferred to go to a breeder when it came to Pukka.)

Kerasote delves deep into conventional veterinary wisdom, citing reams of sometimes-contrary research that challenges the need for such things as regular vaccination and spaying or neutering.

And that's where an otherwise enjoyable book goes off the rails. He knows he's stirring the pot -- nothing wrong with that -- but in doing so he often flees the real world. After all, most American pet owners can't have their dogs padding around a small Wyoming town on their own.

For example, he makes a tour of animal shelters -- where a tragic 1.5 million dogs are euthanized each year in the United States -- and concludes that "no kill" is the answer. He points out that European nations don't kill nearly that many dogs. And he's right.

Yet he also argues that one way to keep dogs living longer might be to keep them sexually intact, or at the least, use tubal ligation rather than spaying and neutering (to maintain natural hormones). Females come into estrus only twice a year, he notes; surely responsible dog owners can control that.

Therein lies a quandary. Already, even with a heavy emphasis on spay-neuter, many Americans -- whose laws define companion animals as property -- can't seem to keep their pets from breeding. And even if, say, an educated pet owner gives his male a vasectomy, to outside appearances the dog will appear intact, a dubious message to a less-educated public. Kerasote is careful to say he still supports spay-neuter policies, but his bias is clear.

In addition, while it would be great if we euthanized no animals -- and the trend has thankfully moved in that direction -- the sanctuary solution is a pipe dream, at least for now. Consider that about 4 million companion animals are killed in shelters each year, and that Best Friends, one of the best-known animal sanctuaries, can keep about 4,000 animals (mostly companion species). That means in the course of one year, to house all the animals that would have been euthanized, you would need 1,000 sanctuaries of similar size, or 20 in each of the 50 states. That's to handle one year's worth of unwanted animals. A better policy? Enact strict breeding and spay-neuter laws -- oh, but that would interfere with "private property."

Kerasote takes great pains to explain why he himself bought Pukka from a breeder, arguing that he had very specific requirements and that hooking up with any old dog at the shelter might not pan out -- and that he wanted his dog "intact." Of course, millions of people do in fact meet their "forever friends" at shelters rather than support breeders who are, by definition, adding to the population. And many of those dogs live good, long lives, twice as long or more than their lupine ancestors.

"Pukka's Promise" is a thought-provoking book that sometimes feels written to provoke controversy. Kerasote is sincere, and Pukka is one lucky dog. But taken to their seeming conclusions, his human companion's prescriptions are less than grounded in the real world.

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